Forward - Son of Sam99's Dynasty

Son of Sam99's Dynasty Blog

Forward

Posted on May 2, 2014 at 05:01 PM.

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Jack Walker loved basketball, period end of sentence. He loved the feel of the ball against his hand, he loved the sound it made pounding against the wood floor, and he loved the screech of shoes as players made their cuts, but most of all he loved the sweet sound of netting dragging against rubber as the ball sailed through the hoop. His passion as long as he could remember was singular, and it was the game of basketball; he studied it�s history, followed college ball and the NBA.

As a youth he would go to the park and shoot jumpers for hours trying to perfect his stroke. Trying to get to the point where he never had to hear the disagreeable clank of a brick off the iron. This idea of having the perfect jumper drove him, he idolized players who could shoot like no one else; Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, Ray Allen, but most of all Steve Nash. And Nash gave Walker hope, standing at just 6�3" Steve Nash won consecutive MVP awards, a stat that some be forgot since his Suns were never able to advance past the conference finals. But Walker would stay up late to watch the west coast game and marvel as Nash ran Mike D�Antoni�s exciting fast paced offence, draining jumpers and dishing out assists by the handful.

On the court Jack was able to carve out a solid niche for himself on the high school team thanks to his extensive work on his jump shot. Lou Simmons, his coach, would send him on as the 7thth man his freshman and sophomore season basically just to hit threes. The three pointer was jack's favorite play in the game both to execute and to see. A big dunk made people ooh and ahh but three pointers really brought everyone to their feet late in a close game. Jack felt there was an assassin�s attitude to hitting a triple, he loved to slow down his dribble, let the defender think he was safe then rise up and knock down the difficult shot.

Junior year was different as Jack was handed the reigns to the offense being the most capable ball handler on the roster. Unfortunate for Jack the team never gelled to say the least and several times that season he struggled with pressing himself. Two consecutive misses and he�d make sure to try to sink a shot next time down the floor, and if he missed that time, he thought he better try again, and so on. His teammates would complain but then the very next game he�d get hot and hit 6 of 8 from long range. And so the season went with the team going .500 and totally missing any playoff opportunity.

Jack�s senior season provided much greater personal success but basically the same level of team success. Thanks to help from the coaches and some use of instructions off the Internet Jack began to learn how to properly use a pick and roll, crossover, and shot fake to create shots for himself and opportunities for his teammates. As the season drew to an end Walker began to gain interest from several division one programs of lower prestige including Central Arkansas, Quinnapac, Siena and Cleveland State. Despite their offers to basically play right away he decided to walk on at his hometown school, Xavier University to play for Sean Miller. It wasn�t until his junior year when Coach Miller accepted a job at Arizona that new head coach Chris Mack finally gave Jack some time in the rotation.

Similar to high school Jack would come off the bench to play around ten minutes a game and essentially just get open to toss up threes. By this strategy Walker averaged nearly 6 points a game and one assist, not nearly the big introduction he had been hoping for. Over the balance of the school year though, Jack worked his tail off along with back court mates Tu Holloway, Mark Lyons, and Brad Redford. Both Holloway and Lyons were straight ballers who it seemed to Jack could crossover anyone in the Atlantic Ten. Working in the gym with those guys helped him further develop his moves off the dribble and trying to keep up with them in the weight room filled out his body as he put on 20 pounds of pure muscle from the end of the season to the first practice of senior year.

Redford and Walker were shooters cast from the same mold; Brad had the quickest release Jack had ever seen. From the time he caught the ball to when it left his hand seemed like just the blink of the eye and Jack learned how to replicate this while still shooting a reasonable percentage.
With his hard work in the off season Jack played himself into 25 minutes per game. He still struggled to shake defenders but shot a solid 40% from the field and a blistering 42% from deep and averaged 15 points per game. The team won 24 games and dominated the Atlantic Ten once again but unfortunately ran into Marquette in the first round of the tournament and promptly headed home after that.

Jack thought his basketball career was over with the loss in the tournament since he knew his game just wasn�t complete enough to play in the NBA. The next week though he was contacted by an agent who told him he could have a career in Europe. He had conflicted feelings about possibly living to Spain or Greece but wanted nothing more than to continue playing the game he loved. He pondered signing with the agent until he received a letter from the NBA.

�You�ve been invited to play in the NBA Rookie Showcase on June 18th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The rookie Showcase is the Associations� opportunity to introduce the fans to the exciting incoming rookies, as well as, for the players involved to exhibit their skills for NBA front offices. Please confirm your intent to compete in the Showcase and further details will be forthcoming.�
-David Stern

Jack wasn�t totally sure why he was invited but knew it was his best chance to play in the most elite basketball league in the world, and he had to take it.